1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a welding machine. More particularly, this invention relates to a hot wedge welding machine for connecting and welding together at least two layers of material. Specifically, this invention relates to a hot wedge welding machine which incorporates a cooling system for use in conjunction with the internal heating system such that the wedge is heated to the desired temperature in a pre-stressed environment to prepare for a cold material to be inserted therein and absorb the additional heat from the wedge.
2. Background Information
Hot wedge welding machines all suffer from a problem which relates to maintaining the desired temperature of the welding element when a material to be welded enters the machine. Given that welding elements must remain in a particular temperature range to ensure a proper seal, thermal dampening occurs when the material to be welded abuts the preheated welding element. This lowers the temperature of the welding element, which in turn stimulates a heating system to increase the current to the welding element to compensate. Oftentimes, this sudden increase of current overcompensates, sending the temperature of the welding element from below the desired range to above the desired range. Heating system shuts off the extra current, which then may send the temperature of the welding element back below the desired range. Eventually, a thermal equilibrium is reached, but only after a lengthy section of unusable and poorly welded material is generated during the oscillation between the wedge being too cold or too hot for form a usable weld.
Therefore, a need exists in the art to provide a hot wedge welding system which may eliminate the above described scenario and allow the welding element to form a usable weld in the proper thermal range when the material is first introduced into the welding machine.